In Tableau 9.3, start interacting with your dashboard while it loads

Ever get tired of just staring at the grey spinner on your screen, waiting for your dashboard to load? We have great news: Tableau 9.3 includes progressive-loading dashboards.

With this feature, you don't have to wait for your dashboard to load all at once; you can start interacting with parts of your dashboard while the rest loads.

First to load are the title of the dashboard and a grey layout of the vizzes.

Next, vizzes start to populate the dashboard, starting from the top. You can start interacting with your dashboard as soon as you see your viz. In this case, if you were to select something from the vizzes shown so far, then the next viz would reflect that selection.

So let’s say you made a selection in the first viz. I’ll choose Sierra Leone.

Then you’d see the following vizzes filter accordingly. Notice how the maps highlight my selection.

Progressively, the dashboard loads in sections until the whole thing appears.

How this works

You might be wondering how this new loading process works. The browser client gets a single payload from the server, the same as before, which describes the entire dashboard. The client processes the payload in chunks, which allows us to “progressively” create the zones in the dashboard.

After each chunk, the browser redraws the UI for those zones, thus allowing the user to interact sooner rather than wait for the whole UI to be created.

Join the beta

Tableau 9.3 is currently in beta and is available for existing Tableau customers. Check out our beta program to learn more and sign up.

As with anything in beta, your feedback is important. So do let us know what you think. Visit the Ideas Forum and share your ideas for features you’d like to see in Tableau. If you have a question or feedback about the current functionality, please leave us a comment below.

Follow the blog for more news about Tableau 9.3, including an in-depth look at the new mapping features.